Infineon snaps up ultra-wideband technology start-up

The company is already a preferred IP provider for major automotive brands. The acquisition further strengthens Infineon’s portfolio for secured smart access, precise localisation and enhanced sensing. Infineon now adds UWB to its connectivity range including Wi-Fi, Bluetooth /Bluetooth Low Energy and NFC solutions.

The first set of IoT use cases include secured access and authentication, accurate location tracking and indoor navigation, as well as presence detection utilising UWB radar implementations. Infineon is acquiring 100 percent of the company’s shares. The parties have agreed not to disclose the amount of the transaction.

“The expertise of 3db in Ultra-Wideband technology accelerates Infineon’s IoT roadmap for leveraging the market opportunities of secured, connected devices. Our combined strengths enable the UWB roll-out to address additional automotive, industrial and consumer IoT applications as the next logical step,” said Thomas Rosteck (pictured), President of Infineon’s Connected Secure Systems division. ABI Research expects the UWB chipset market to grow at an annual 13 percent, amounting to approximately US$3.1 billion by 2028 [1]. “Together, we will now create full system solutions with unique features which combine low-power consumption, enhanced physical layer security, feature-rich Radio Frequency (RF) frontend configurations and localisation-optimised hardware architecture.”

”With Smartphone manufacturers adding UWB capability in the latest and future generations of their products, the demand for UWB-capable devices is expected to grow significantly. Our mission is to open up the best of this technology to smartphones as well as cars and to enable standalone integration in low-power IoT devices,” said Boris Danev, Co-Founder and CEO of 3db Access AG. “As part of Infineon, we will strive to enrich secured localization and sensing functionalities for major IoT and automotive applications. We are now evolving from an IP provider to a team of experts selling solutions from our own fabs.”

In the dynamic UWB market and with rapidly increasing demand from numerous manufacturers, suppliers are also differentiating themselves through their research activities. With their combined expertise, Infineon and 3db will now offer additional benefits to their customers.

Originally an ETH Zurich spinoff, 3db maintains a strategic partnership with ETH.

Infineon is poised to develop this relationship even further, in addition to intensified collaboration in the relevant standardisation bodies for secured localization and sensing. Moreover, Infineon's broad market access is backed by extensive R&D activities. With 59 R&D sites worldwide, Infineon currently holds more than 31,000 patents and invests an annual 13 percent of its revenues in R&D.

3db delivers secured, ultra-low power and high-precision integrated UWB ranging and sensing solutions. 3db’s integrated products enable a broad range of applications including provable secured access to valuable assets (vehicles, buildings), secured proof of proximity for seamless mobile payments and real-time high accuracy and precision localization of connected, intelligent devices.